


No Light, No Light

by GirlDressedInBlack



Category: Doctor Who (2005)
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2020-07-05
Updated: 2020-07-05
Packaged: 2021-03-05 00:48:57
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 671
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/25085695
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GirlDressedInBlack/pseuds/GirlDressedInBlack
Summary: The Doctor and the Mistress are far too alike. They spin in circles, one angering the other, angering the other.
Kudos: 5





	No Light, No Light

The Doctor watches her go still suddenly, like a clockwork toy wound down in a moment. Her limbs drop into something neutral, static.

She looks up, bird-like, the light in her eyes suddenly sharp and non-existent at the same time.

He doesn't know what it is- what he's done.

"Tell me what you want me to say." He stutters.

His hand remains by his side but if he'd been more inclined to touch this regeneration he knows he would reach out for her.

Her anger is palpable, bitter between them.

Perhaps most unnerving is the quiet.

The Mistress is never silent. She doesn't stop talking, moving, breathing.

He forgets often now that neither of them need to breathe so much. He's been around humans so much that it's normalised.

She's not breathing now.

"What have I done, Missy? Please tell me." He asks her, voice low and gentle, "I need to make it right." The Doctor tells her, still soft as he meets her gaze.

Her eyes are piercing and he's sure they're making a scene, both of them standing still in the middle of a market.

He can't care for that now.

"You think that this will make it all go normal?" She asks, words precise as she sweeps at hand in gesture at the marketplace as a whole.

His brain scrambles to understand.

"What-"

"You think that you'll take me away for a little trip, show me some quaint people, buy me an _ice-cream_ and it will make everything between us go back to normal?" She hisses before he can say much more.

"You want to _make it right_." She mocks, singing the words, eyes bright with tears and fierce anger.

"You wouldn't know 'right' if it bit you on the ass." The Mistress spits.

"Missy- wait!" He calls out as she turns in a flurry of skirts, people ducking to either side as she strides away.

"I'm not having this conversation with you." She crows, no longer visible through the crowd who stare at him, dirty looks and curiosity.

* * *

"Rassilon help me- I need to make this _right_." The Mistress stresses, looking up at him from the lower level of the tardis.

Somehow that makes it worse.

He turns, eyes cold as they meet hers and he bears down on the guard rail.

"You want a _revelation_? You want to make it _right_?" He sneers at her.

She can't help but be hurt by his tone but she reaches for him nevertheless, trying to touch his cheek.

He pulls away and the rejection of that, of her being gentle, hurts even more.

"Yes." She says, almost begging as she fights between staying put and going to him, "I do."

His expression closes off again and staying put wins out.

"Tell me what you want me to say." The Time Lady offers, "Tell me how I can make it right- make it up to you." She tells him.

The Doctor's face sours.

"Some things can't be made right! Some things are unforgivable! Some things are just burdens which you have to carry and they're heavy and awful but no one can take them from you because they're your fault!" He shouts, "That's part of being good! That you shoulder those burdens and you never, ever, put them down for a moment, because the moment you do there's a chance you'll do it again! That you'll hurt people again!" His words are loud with anger and pain and most of all guilt.

There's silence as the Doctor breathes raggedly in the aftermath.

The Mistress doesn't breathe, eyes fixed on him and recoiled away slightly, enough that he can't touch her.

He looks old, so old, and tired as he looks at her, expecting something she doesn't understand. She feels tears start to build, a reflex to being yelled at.

"You probably don't understand a word of what I'm saying." The Doctor mumbles, dragging a hand across his face and turning away from her.

The Mistress doesn't stop him from leaving.


End file.
